Staff photo / Burton Cole Elenie McNally displays some of the bracelets, mask holders and rings she’s created for her online store, Handmade by Elenie. The Howland graduate donates money from each sale to various needs in the area.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of a series of Saturday profiles of area residents and their stories. To suggest a profile, contact features editor Burton Cole at bcole@trib today.com.

HOWLAND — Elenie McNally is on the go. Always.

“I have lots of hobbies,” the former Howland High School cross-country star said.

Most reflect her active lifestyle — skateboarding, outdoor photography, running roads and trails (not circles around the track), and so on.

“I feel like when people think of me, they think of cross country,” McNally, 18, said.

Last fall, she was part of the stellar Howland High School crew that made it to the state championships. McNally was named All-Trumbull County and All-Suburban League, First-Team All-American Conference, and received the Archie Griffin Award for promoting sportsmanship in her school and community.

That’s what she’s becoming known for now — someone who gives back. It was one of her quiet time hobbies that opened a new world of business and philanthropy.

“During February, I started making bracelets,” the 2020 graduate said. “It’s always been a hobby. It goes on and off.”

Her mom, MaryLyn McNally, said she should sell them.

“I didn’t want to. No one’s going to buy them,” Elenie McNally said.

Mom posted them on her Facebook page and took them to the salon where she works. The bracelets, anklets, key chains and mask holders keep selling out.

“During the first months of quarantine, they all went and I kept making them,” she said. “I’m always trying to stay busy, so the business is helping me cope with the pandemic. The bracelets are a great way for me to share positive messages, and we all need that right now.”

The question became what to do with the money to back up the message.

McNally said she knew the Howland Schools Paws Pantry needed more help than ever for food and clothing. She vowed to donate at least a dollar from each purchase to the Paw Pantry.

For the first couple of months, about $200 was raised for the pantry. The next month, about $350 was raised for Kristin Fox, the Campbell Memorial High School assistant principal who had both arms amputated below the elbows and both legs amputated below the knees after a life-threatening bloodstream infection.

About another $200 was raised for the latest need, a cancer patient whose name McNally was not at liberty to divulge.

“Now we’re looking for a new one,” she said.

McNally said she grew up being taught the importance of making others happy. She saw it while working the food and clothing tables at her church in her younger years.

“I was always volunteering for stuff,” McNally said. “Because it makes people happy. I go and buy my friends things because it makes them smile. I just enjoy making people happy.”

That’s where the bracelets come in. MaryLyn McNally created an online store for daughter, Handmade by Elenie, which includes a Facebook page where Elenie shows her latest designs. Materials range from lava beads — the most popular — to gemstones to delicate pieces of silver or gold, to chains to beads with letters to shapes to whatever else can be fit on a string. Most of the designs incorporate inspirational messages of hope.

“I just go to the store and see what looks good or what looks like it would be fun to pair with something else,” she said. “I’m running out of stores to go to. I’ve seen them all.”

The stores are running out of stock, thanks to slowdowns from COVID-19. “If they have a bunch, I get them all.”

When classes begin later this month at Kent State University at Trumbull, McNally will be there as a freshman criminology and justice studies major. She also is committed to run cross country for Kent Trumbull — if there’s a season.

She said she had been a soccer player when in seventh grade she wanted to try cross country. Her mom wasn’t excited about the switch, but during her first meet, her dad called her mom at work and said, “She’s in second place. Do you still think she should quit?”

McNally’s been a cross-country specialist since. The hours and miles of training over rugged terrain are hard, and some days, she just didn’t feel like running, she said. But she had a team and a coach holding her accountable, and she was not about to let anyone down.

“I think it’s the competition and the part that you know you can win that makes it exciting.”

In high school, she was running 50 or more miles per week with strict coaching and the company of teammates. This year, even though she’s advanced to collegiate level competition, McNally said she’s logging only 25 to 30 miles per week, the beginning of organized practices have been pushed back, and the season is in doubt.

She said she holds out hope.

Kent State Trumbull cross country coach Bill Hess said, “Elenie is one of those special people who gives it her all whether she is competing or not. She is a great teammate and an even better human being. We are thrilled that she is coming to campus this fall.”

In the classroom, McNally hasn’t honed in on any particular aspect of criminal justice — law enforcement, corrections, security, juvenile, background checks, forensics or other avenues.

“I just need to see all of it,” she said. “It’s interesting and fun and that’s what I like. When I get a job, I don’t want to sit. I want to keep seeing new things.”

Whatever her road, McNally said she’ll always look for something new and different — and something to benefit others along the way.

bcole@tribtoday.com